Dive Brief:

• The California Public Utilities Commission is developing a program that requires the state's investor-owned utilities to offer 600 MW of “shared” renewables, with at least 100 MW for residential customers.
• The Green Tariff Shared Renewables Program is designed to make additional renewable energy available to people who can't install their own rooftop panels. The utilities will contract with independent power producers to build renewable facilities for the program.
• The PUC is expected to vote on the utility plans by July, with the program set to take effect in the fall.

Dive Insight:

This program is one more step in California's march toward massively expanding distributed generation in the state (the state has a 12,000 MW goal for distributed generation). Also, it may be less expensive way to add renewables than a rooftop-by-rooftop approach.